There are a lot of multifamily works being built right now in Southern California but at the start of the recession, that was not the case. The project Stella in Marina Del Ray, however, was an exception and the landscape architectural firm, Orange Street Studio was a lucky beneficiary of that fact.

The company, which was founded by principal, Michael Schneider in the early 90s, happened to get involved in the project through a relationship built with an architectural firm and a developer in better times. It started by teaming with the firm, Design Arc, on a single-family residence in Century City; cited by Schneider to be his first modern project. It won an ASLA design award in 2004.

Next was a large project in Palm Springs, where the developers, Nexus, were creating "big house condominiums" - built to look like large homes - and other entities. Design Arc was charged with the clubhouse and 19 single-family homes on a cul-de-sac. Orange Street designed exteriors for the clubhouse, the single family homes, a whole internal system of roadways, parks, and streetscapes and courtyards.

Nexus then teamed up with another developer and created GLJ Partners, which became the driving force behind Stella. They signed up Orange Street to be part of the design team for this large complex along major streets on the Westside of Los Angeles that included internal roads and many podium level spaces including private courtyards and common spaces such as lounge areas, barbecue zones, outdoor living rooms, cabanas around an internal beach, and a swimming pool; really a very extensive outdoor realm for 244 units.

A New Approach
Orange Street found out that building on podium level, in this case on top of structurally-designed concrete slabs over a parking garage and commercial spaces, brought extra issues compared to building on the ground level. For example, all of the planting had to be done with raised planters that are completely enclosed and waterproofed. Overall it required a different knowledge base - how things drain, how things grow, what the root structures are, how spaces are defined and designed and laid out.

"You have to work closely with structural engineers and weight load, and respect where column placement is and everybody is trying to work in coordination with each other to achieve a viable, sensible, functional, aesthetically pleasing space," states Schneider. "Once I was introduced to it and understood it, then it allowed us to be involved in myriad mixed-use and multifamily projects."

The Conceptual Design Philosophy
"We look for ways to cue the arrangement of objects through the architecture," Schneider relates. "Where columns fall, where corners occur, where lines emanate down the building, and then extend those lines out into the space to create a layout that is woven into the architecture so that in the end it all feels very well coordinated and that one flows naturally into the other."

His father was an architect, so Schneider came into his profession not only with a love of nature and plants but also a love of design, form and all of the materials that are part of that.

As he explains it further, "I have a great appreciation for concrete and stone and the hardscape that's involved in projects as well as how it is lit, the drama that is created and water as well - how all that plays in the daylight and is illuminated at night is real important so all of these aspects came to bear in this project where we looked at each opportunity as a way to create a comprehensive experience based on all of this materiality coming together, and celebrating that as much possible in each of these spaces."

 

Schneider believes that his company was able to bring to the table a fresher approach to the plant palette, which he compares to the world of fashion with tastes changing throughout the years and being inspired by regional influences.

His sensibilities included a vast appreciation for grasses, possibly shaped by his time spent on the Great Plains of Minnesota, and also the work of John Greenlee, which made him "very intrigued with the ephemeral quality of grasses blown by wind."

"It is ubiquitous now but not at that time," claims Schneider. "So a mix of color and texture and form is what I was very interested in - the formal sculptural quality of things and not really caught up by a floral approach to landscapes."

As with each of his projects, Schneider did some experimentation, which he feels is very important.

"There were some grasses that were more typical of the time or they began to be available but there were others that were less so," he remembers. "So when you look at a lot of this you'll see a layering of plants that prior to this was not really prevalent. This is a blend of art and science and unless you are pushing somewhere, you're not really growing."

Facing the Challenges
Being developed as the Great Recession was heating up, one might think that budgetary constraints might have challenged the designers, but Schneider says this wasn't the case; their decisions were not affected by it and there was no pairing back of materials.

The biggest challenge was the very new LID requirement of having to efficiently capture and filter all stormwater on site before it drained to the ocean. Working with civil engineers, the landscape architects came up with a system of downspouts that flowed into selected planters adjacent to the building.

And once these planters filled up with enough water, there were overflow capabilities and pipes at their bases that made their way to the stormwater system.

"It was not a very highly developed idea at the time," admits Schneider.

And unfortunately, after their first planting there was so much water during the winter, compounded by water still being used during the construction process that the planters were flooded and a lot of the plants died.

"They couldn't handle the inundation, the swamp-like condition that was created," Schneider recalls. "So we had to figure out how to work with that level of tech and make the system work. And we selected a different palette, which still years later is thriving and doing well."

The interconnected aspects of the spaces up on the podium level and satisfying the functional requirements are always challenging according to Schneider.

"When you have housing units with courtyard patios that share the space with a common area, how do you create a sense of public use and privacy?" he muses. "Residents want a sense of privacy and a sense of connection to that common space."

One of the solutions was to create walls of plantings that offer privacy but don't feel too enclosed.

"One can't simply be out there at the grill or in the common lounge areas and look into people's personal space," states Schneider.

Besides creating the design and the construction documents, Schneider was involved on site as part of construction administration to ensure that the builders were following the intent of the plan. He was there not only to look at formwork and the arrangement and layout of all these elements but when problems arose, unexpected things that might not have been foreseen, he helped resolve those and allow the project to move forward with momentum.

"I love to watch people build things, so I like to be involved when the crafts people are out there doing their work," Schneider admits. "I learn more about how they efficiently use materials and then I know how to design better with them."

His firm's work now includes about 60% mixed use, 30% single-family, 10% commercial and a little public work.

The city was so happy with the project, and all the jobs it offered during the recession, that they held a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by then-mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

As to Schneider's overall impression with the results of Stella for which it received a Westside Urban Forum Honor award for multi-unit housing in 2014?

"I'm very enamored with this project. I love how it reads from standing in the various spaces. It really feels like a village - feels very cohesive and yet there are enough differences in the various areas to make it feel distinct and interesting throughout. I continue to enjoy (returning to) take a look at it and I am very pleased when we receive calls from developers who are familiar with this project and tell us 'we're calling you because we love Stella.'"

As seen in LASN magazine, February 2020.